Shot on site in Israel’s official hiking route, the work tackles layers of history, myth and geography by turning the Zionist ethos of “conquering the land with one’s own feet” into a taboo. A group of nomads marches on, aided by carts, machinery, makeshift contraptions and acrobatics. Slowly and painstakingly they conquer the road, making their way through desert landscapes, woods, seaside and by a river. With great exertion they carry themselves and those under their custody – women, children, men, elderly, disabled – without ever touching the ground with their bare feet. Progressing from dawn to dusk, their destination remains unclear, just as their identity: are they nomads? Escapees? Distant relatives of the current inhabitants of the land, or a futuristic clan?

A park in summer. Every day a woman comes with her children to call her husband. In the park she is well, for one or two hours. She may not be able to see her husband, but she can hear him. A wall separates the two.

Russa returns to Bairro do Aleixo in Porto, visiting her sister and friends with whom she celebrates her son’s birthday. In this brief reunion, Russa returns to the collective memory of her neighbourhood where three of the five towers still remain standing.

Two girls have created a world beyond time and space, dancing through the eery halls of an abandoned monastery. The games they play follow a dreamlike logic. Rules are randomly made, ultimately forming and breaking their symbiotic relationship.

3rd Builders' Street focusses on the concrete panel houses which appeared throughout the Soviet Union since the 1960s. Older generations in Russia still remember how these houses improved their living conditions. In the early years the Khrushchovka (named after Khrushchev) were dream homes for many and offered a first own home to millions of people. Despite the fact that most Khrushchovka, and following generations of panel houses are nowadays in a poor condition, the past “future-oriented” ideology is still tangible. Simultaneously the current state reveals that this utopian potential was never fulfilled. This dialectical image is being accentuated by the use of colour separation.

3rd Builders' Street is part of “Standstill”, a series of videos and photos which examines the modern history of Russia via her architecture. The use of colour separation is inspired by the photography of Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944).

Dreamland

Frankreich 2017, 05:00 Min.

Dreamland will never be completed.
It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.